A novel strategy for the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and chemoresistance of hepatocellular carcinoma: DNA methylation

Abstract

The cancer mortality rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second highest in the world and the therapeutic options are limited. The incidence of this deadly cancer is rising at an alarming rate because of the high degree of resistance to chemo‐ and radiotherapy, lack of proper, and adequate vaccination to hepatitis B, and lack of consciousness and knowledge about the disease itself and the lifestyle of the people. DNA methylation and DNA methylation‐induced epigenetic alterations, due to their potential reversibility, open the access to develop novel biomarkers and therapeutics for HCC. The contribution to these epigenetic changes in HCC development still has not been thoroughly summarized. Thus, it is necessary to better understand the new molecular targets of HCC epigenetics in HCC diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. This review elaborates on recent key findings regarding molecular biomarkers for HCC early diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Currently emerging epigenetic drugs for the treatment of HCC are summarized. In addition, combining epigenetic drugs with nonepigenetic drugs for HCC treatment is also mentioned. The molecular mechanisms of DNA methylation‐mediated HCC resistance are reviewed, providing some insights into the difficulty of treating liver cancer and anticancer drug development.

Upregulated LINC01667 Expression Is Correlated With Poor Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and has consequently become a major public health challenge (1)(2)(3)(4). Its incidence is increasing at an alarming rate, which can be attributed to the high degree of resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, lack of adequate vaccination against hepatitis B, and lack of consciousness and knowledge about the disease itself and a proper lifestyle (5). HCC is often associated with poor prognosis, and surgery is the only effective treatment method at present (6).…”

A Nomogram Based on Glycolysis-related Gene Expression Profilings Serve as a Novel Prognosis Risk Classifiers for Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…Therefore, the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma has received increasing attention worldwide. Surgical treatment has always been regarded as the main treatment for HCC [29][30][31] . However, most patients cannot be treated surgically because of tumor anatomical location, tumor size, tumor number, insu cient liver residual volume, or extrahepatic metastasis 32 .…”

Transcriptomic analysis and Novel gene pair-based signatures for Hepatitis B-related hepatocellular carcinoma

“…In the present study, we focused on the HBV-related HCC because it is not only one of the common subtypes of liver cancer, but also a tricky public health problem. With the development of high-throughput sequencing and microarray technology, identifying DEGs and potent pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma is becoming a routine task, which provides an effective way to explore potential targets in diagnosing and prognosing HCC in the early stages [18,19]. However, only a small part of studies focused on the establishment of signatures for HBC-related HCC [20] which makes our study meaningful.…”